Crater Camp is touted as the last word in isolation on the slightly over-trammeled Kilimanjaro circuit. There is no doubt that getting up there, particularly via the famous Western Breach, is a large undertaking, and spending the night at over 5500m is not for lightweights, but isolated Crater Camp is not!

We made the trip up from Arrow Glacier Camp in about 7-hours of fairly solid slogging up the middle of the Western Breach. Scrambling over the edge of the crater the first sight that greets one is the rather diminutive – not much more than a huge ice-cube – Furtwangler Glacier. After the obligatory photograph against the ice mass – ‘say Fartwanker!’ – we trudged over the ash colored sand that lines the crater floor towards camp situated about 500 meters distant. As usual the porters had arrived before us and were setting up camp, and besides them we were alone on this beautiful and desolate spot.

Litter and worse…

However it was difficult to ignore a carpet of detritus littering the extremities of the camp, a collection of oddments including discarded tampons, teabags, hand-warmers and the usual debris associated with the human condition. I took my camera and set off to photograph the hidden piles of kitchen waste and portable toilet dumps that were the most obvious signs, but pretty soon I was reeling at the sheer volume of crap – literally – that littered the camp surrounds.

Behind every rock, and even some way up the trail towards the summit, hundred and hundreds of human turds lay un-decomposed as might be expected under these conditions of temperature and altitude. It was the most revolting sight imaginable in an otherwise pristinely beautiful natural space.

High altitude lethargy…

Basically the problem is this: It is ecologically unsound to dig pit latrines at this altitude thanks to the fact that no degeneration will take place and what is deposited will remain effectively forever. The use of portable toilets is the alternative, but few porters care to portage filled units down so they simply dump the contents onto the sand. Moreover the porters themselves have no facilities so have no choice but to defecate out in the open and it is this that accounts for the colossal amount of human waste in evidence everywhere.

The end of Crater Camp

As soon as I was back in Moshi I was on the phone to the local head of KINAPA who told me that the situation at Crater Camp had been of concern to the parks authority for some time, and that in fact the decision had recently been taken to shut the facility down altogether. This effectively means that any Western Breach Summit will end at Barafu Camp and that only by special license can anyone in future make use of the crater floor.

As far as current obligations are concerned, pre-existing bookings will be honored, but within a year the facility will be cleaned up and left to nature. It is a very sad fact that the state of human commerce on the mountain is so reckless and indifferent, but the fact remains. Although very sad it is probably for the best. So for those of you booked to climb via Crater Camp, hold your nose, watch your step and make the most of being the last of any of us to make the journey.

For each person who signs up for a commercial climb at least three accompanying support staff are included. Once the practical business of climbing the mountain begins the down-to-earth implications of this volume of traffic with regards to where these people all ‘go’ becomes no small matter.

Standards vary from camp to camp…

Depending on the trail you choose the nature and standard of the toilets on offer vary enormously. I have noticed that the higher the altitude the less inviting are the facilities. This probably has much to do with the degree to which one’s energy diminishes at altitude, leading those unfortunate souls charged with the responsibility of maintaining these structures losing interest at altitudes above 12000ft.

The best ablution facilities can be found along the highly commercial routes such as Marangu, and to a lesser extent Machame. The standard of service available at Shira 2 Camp, for example, at the point where Lemosho Route and Machame Route merge is very high. However, far more commonly, services are offered in crudely built and shallowly dug ‘long drop’ potties that are heavily utilized and that offer a less-that-delightful aroma if your porter happens to site your tent downwind.

Facilities are circulated as much as possible…

The good news is that these amenities are regularly circulated so that the build-up of atmospheric toxins is ameliorated somewhat. There are also usually quite a few of them available at any one camp, so one can be selective about which among the many to visit.

Whatt is unavoidable, however, is that they are almost exclusively squat toilets and a degree of dexterity and accuracy are required to effectively use them. Sadly evidence abounds to suggest that these skills are surprisingly rare in the climb fraternity.

The Barafu bog consipracy…

The worst concentration of toilets I have found are at Barafu Camp, although I invite comparison from anyone who cares to disagree.

Barafu enjoys a number of signature disadvantages as a camp. It consists of a bleak and waterless ridge that was clearly chosen with more practical than aesthetic considerations in mind. It is the point at which a number of trails merge, and being as there is but one summit, and this is the last staging point for a good many climb parties, it is crowded, messy and it stinks.

It is evident that the local national parks authority is trying as best it can to keep ahead of the demand, and things could definitely be worse, but there is no pleasure in satisfying your fundamental needs here.

Bring your own if you can afford it…

Most of the higher-end outfitters nowadays offer a version of the portable sailing toilets that are carried skyward up the mountain on the heads of local porters. For women in particular these devises are a godsend and the extra few dollars they cost are definitely worthwhile.

It is easy to overlook this when considering price options for your climb, but remember when the day comes that you have to stand in the freezing wind, toilet-roll in hand, looking at a dozen possibilities, each one less inviting than the last, you will without doubt appreciate the extra expense.

Or keep it bottled up until you get to lower altitude…

The good news is that the Kilimanjaro National Park Authority (KINAPA) is gradually working towards a general improvement. There are always going to be remote camps at high altitude where the practicalities of camp maintenance are very difficult, but certain entrepots…for example Shira 2, Mweka Camp and the hutted camps along Marangu … offer a much higher standard of facility that for most punctuates and relieves the overall unpleasantness of that signature windswept hut on a cold and lonely mountainside.

Hard times always bring out the creativity in man. Necessity is the mother of invention. There are a slough of offers across the internet for cut price Kilimanjaro climbs being tendered by the lower two-thirds of climb market in Tanzania. This is the strata that caters for the bulk of the venture climb traffic.

This dovetails very neatly into the need for cheap climb options. Without these many would be unable in this economic climate to climb. However if a trip is offered below cost, and if economic survival is the key, then corners will be cut, and here are a few ways this is being achieved.

Short trips

This is a trick that has surfaced and submerged often over the years. Currently it is back at the surface and breathing new life into the ailing bottom feeders who have always occupied the fringe of respectable Kili business. It is very simple, and here is how it works:

You pay for an 8-day trip and upon check-in at the national parks gate, usually with connivance of one of more TANAPA officials, your operator pays for only a 6-day trip. The crew are then under instructions to ensure that as many members of party as possible succumb to AMS (Acute Mountain Sickness) within those 6-days, which can be achieved in any number of ways, particularly among novice climbers. These are then hustled off the mountain which allows the outfitting company to retain the parks fees, not only for those paying packs themselves, but also the porters and guides for whom fees will also have been charged but not paid.

The obvious way to guard against this is to make sure that the correct monies are paid at the gate and the correct registration completed. This not easy, particularly if a TANAPA official is in on it, but it is a precaution.

It is also worthwhile – particularly if you have been given younger guides whose attitude is less one of professionalism than random teenagers taking any job they can – not taking as rote everything you are told. The signs of this type of guide are usually that they remain plugged into their MP3 player or transistor radios from beginning to end, have no particular answers to any queries, and are more interested in what kit they can beg from you than your well-being or enjoyment.

If you find yourself with this type of guide you need to take more control of your circumstances. If you are suffering obvious health problems and your guide’s advice is go, go, go! … then pause and assert your status as a paying client and lay down the law. Do not be coerced or bulldozed into side excursions that you do not feel fit for, and do not adhere to any suggestions of short cuts, truncated days or any other creative route finding that strays from the written itinerary.

Short Staffed

A very common sight on the final stretch of the climb are climbers clearly on their last legs, fading in and out of consciousness, retching and weaving, but being pushed forward by their guides. This might on the surface seem inspirational, but is in reality extremely poor practice. Here is why:

It is essential when setting off from Barafu Camp towards the summit to have with your group enough personnel qualified or experienced at high altitude to ensure that everyone has a shot of getting to the summit. Out of a group of ten packs it is possible that half might drop out at various stages and need to be escorted down by someone who knows what they are doing. The remainder are then able to continue up with another guide, usually the lead guide, who also knows what he or she is doing.

If a group of 10 packs is sent up on the last 6-hour slog to the summit with just one, or maybe two guides, obviously, in order that the whole group are not forced to return alongside the first casualty, the ailing member is put under enormous, and extremely dangerous pressure to continue. It is usually a very irritated party of climbers that has to return short of the summit thanks to the incapacity of one, or maybe two climbers.

Any climb outfitter worth its salt will provide a ratio of guides-to-climbers of three packs to one guide. Usually this is arranged so that the party is led by a ‘lead’ guide whose age and experience is sufficient to undertake the task. He will be supported by an assistant guide, or two, who are licensed, but gaining experience under the tutelage of the master.

Supporting these will be a clique of porters with ambitions to go through the licensing system who usually undertake the tasks of cook, camp manager and quartermaster, with the capacity to escort injured or weakened members of the climb party down if necessary, and otherwise to stand in as emergency guides in a crisis.

It is worth remembering the bulk of the porters you will have on your trip are part of the bottom rung of the climb fraternity, and for the most part they are an itinerant workforce with little mountain experience who do a trip or two when they need the cash and otherwise are lowland farmers or share croppers accustomed to the steppe. These are not men capable of any degree of professional mountaineering, and very much bring up the rear.

Another point worth remember is that there is a local industry is second hand kit, and your guides and porters will have their eye on what your might be relieved of from the onset. Requests for kit and tearful distress at low tips are a common feature of Kili, arm yourself with fore-knowledge, and do not give away kit you do not want to give away just because your petitioner looks like he might need it. Chances are he intends to sell it.

>>Here are some more common scams...

So these are just a couple of popular scams, let me know if you have experienced any others and I would be happy to compile a rogues gallery of naughty boys that do this kind of stuff.

Anyone who has climbed Kilimanjaro will know what a huge part the porters played in their climb. As a photographer, I can vividly remember standing on top of Kilimanjaro in a sea of clouds watching with intrigue and amusement as the porters who had accompanied us to the top muscled in on summit photos, grabbing cameras to record our happy moment. And from there sprang the idea for the The Porters of Kilimanjaro Photographic Project – a chance to see the mountain through the eyes of a working porter.

The project is currently distributing disposable film cameras to porters who work on Kilimanjaro to collate a unique record of life on the mountain. Many of the published photographs available of porters on Kilimanjaro are taken from a distinctly Western perspective and taken by professionals on specialised equipment. Removing the technology and textbook expertise from photography can create some fantastic and unexpected results – especially when coupled with documenting day-to-day life on the roof of Africa.

The ultimate aim of the project is to create a book and series of exhibitions of the images in order to raise money for Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project, a non-profit organisation based in Moshi, providing support and education to porters as well as educating climbers on the proper working conditions and treatment of porters on the mountain (visit www.kiliporters.org for more information).
To date 40 cameras have successfully gone up and down the mountain but we need your help to keep the momentum going so as to collect a good variety of images:

How can you help?

We need to distribute as many cameras as possible to porters on the mountain.

Distribute: If you are travelling to Kilimanjaro and can help to distribute cameras please contact me.

Donate: One camera costs less than $5 and takes 27 images. If one person can donate one camera to one porter we can build up the number of images very quickly – can you fit one in your backpack?

Spread the word: If you know someone who might be interested in the project or the work of the Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project please forward on the links.

Please contact me to help, donate or ask for more information

One of my concerns for the climb up Kilimanjaro was my ability to manage the altitude necessary to make the summit, and equally important, to enjoy the experience. Also, the threat of severe AMS lurked in the background to completely derail my attempt to summit or worse to miss my next birthday.

Past Experience

During previous hikes over 10,000 feet (3000m), I had struggled. Headaches, loss of appetite, and general fatigue were always present during trips to the Sierra Nevada. I recall experiencing shortness of breath just walking around camp at 12,000. When I was younger, better physical conditioning helped me push through the physical problems and get to the top (usually 13,000 to 14,000 feet). But Kilimanjaro is 19,341 feet (5895m)! Plus now that I am, let’s just say more mature (over 50), I was really concerned.

I know that in my earlier mountain trips, I did not drink enough water. Compounding this was usually no time to acclimatize because of the requirement to finish hikes over a weekend. Drinking adequate water (4 to 5 liters per day) will be easy to do this time and our extended trek across the western flank of Kilimanjaro will provide for acclimatization. However, my doubts still lingered.

Diamox: How & Why…

For this trip, I decided to take Diamox (Acetazolamide) to speed up the acclimatization process. Because of the reduced oxygen at altitude, breathing harder and faster allows your body to get more oxygen in the system as it produces more red blood cells. The increase in carbon dioxide exhaled at the same time makes the blood more alkaline. The kidneys get involved to excrete the excess alkaline to balance things out. Diamox helps the kidneys by speeding up the process. My local doctor prescribed 250 mg daily starting 2 days before the hike. I had read a number of articles that recommended anywhere from 125 mg to 500 mg per day, so this seemed reasonable.

Side Effects

The side effects described were numbness or tingling in the fingers and toes plus more frequent urination. There was also a big caution about not taking any sedatives once you started the medication. All of the side effects go away when you stop. This seemed manageable especially compared to not making it to the top.

I started taking the Diamox at the hotel in Moshi the night before we left for Kilimanjaro. I wanted to have a bathroom ready to see just how frequent, frequent is. Three Tuskers that night at dinner added more liquid than normal, but frequent turned out to be every other hour! Manageable in the hotel, but no more Tuskers until the end of the trip.

The first three days of the hike we climbed from 6890 feet (2100m) to 12,600 feet (3840m) over a relatively gradual incline and 22 km. I did not have any difficulty. The tingling side effect in my fingers and toes was no different than if you slept on your arm and felt mild numbness. It lasted for 20 to 30 minutes. I maintained my water intake which created two excursions per night out of the tent. This was not a problem because after midnight the skies cleared and I was able to view the splendor of every star in the sky and the Milky Way stretched across the heavens. A great side benefit even at the expense of a temporary chill from getting out of the sleeping bag.

The Result

The first test was Day 4 when we hiked from Shira Hut to Barranco Camp via the Lava Tower at 15,230 feet (4642m). We would ultimately sleep that night at 13,000 feet, but 15,000 feet was the highest I had ever hiked. It turned out to be no problem at all. Walking slowly (Swahili – poley poley), plenty of water, a good workout program prior to the trip, and the Diamox combined to make this day’s hike a great experience. I was not winded, no headache, and plenty of energy. The landscape was phenomenal and I was able to fully enjoy and appreciate it.

This was a major confidence booster for me. Over the next two days, we hiked up to Barufu Huts Camp at 15,358 feet (4681m). This was the last camp before our summit attempt that night at midnight. After 6 days and almost 40 kilometers of walking, the excitement and anticipation provided plenty of adrenaline. I was raring to go and felt great.

The Summit

When the last cheers of “Happy New Year” started to subside, we left Barafu Camp for the summit. Pitch black with your headlamp only illuminating the next three feet, we trudged steadily up the next 4,000 feet over the next 7 hours. We pass multiple groups huddled over fallen comrades and we lose one of our own to the altitude (Note – later in the day, she recovered and made it to the top). The ingredients of training, pace, hydration, and modern medicine combined to deliver me to the peak at 6:45AM. An unbelievable feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction wash over me as I get my picture taken at Uhuru Peak 5895m, Africa’s highest point, the world’s tallest freestanding mountain.

Could I have made it without Diamox? I don’t know. I wanted to give myself every advantage possible so I trained hard, took care of my body during the trip, followed directions (poley poley), and used available medicine whether it was Imodium or Diamox to aid my ascent. What I do know is that I made it and that is good enough for me.

Eco-tourism

This is an odd principal to apply to an industry such as tourism, but in developing countries, and in Africa in particular, great efforts have been made, and significant advances achieved, in spreading the bounty of high yield eco-tourism to local communities. This presents the opportunity for local people to actively partake in and receive the financial benefits of tourism as an incentive to preserve their natural environments.

In Kilimanjaro, and in the other two main mountain ranges in the region, this has been most notably achieved in the mandating of local guides and porters as a basic requirement for any group embarking on a climb. In principal this ensures that local communities benefit from tourism revenues, but in practice it has often resulted in quite cynical exploitation.

These men are clearly ill-equipped to contemplate climbing to Barafu Camp or Kibo Huts above 18 000ft

The Kilimanjaro Porters Assistance Project

The Facts

On this blog I have made fairly liberal use of National Geographic as a source for reliable and authentic information, and once again I have found National Geographic at the forefront. In a 2003 article entitled Carrying a Heavy Load some startling facts were exposed. These are some:

Many porter deaths (an estimated 15-20 annually) go unreported thanks to the unwillingness of TANAPA (Tanzania National Parks Authority) to release accurate figures.

The main reason is ‘price gouging’, and the resultant savings gained by unscrupulous local outfitters providing porters with little or no high altitude survival gear.

There are recorded instances of porters ailing with edema or other altitude related maladies left on the side of the trail to be revived by better equipped groups or sent down alone without support or monitoring.

Unwilling to risk their jobs being handed to a large pool of desperate and willing men sick porters often persevere at great risk to themselves.

Porter deaths are principally from edema or hypothermia.

Kilimanjaro porters are usually lowland farmers with little or no mountain tradition.

For every death there are hundreds of close calls and narrow escapes.

Fair Trade in Kilimanjaro

There is no doubt that Kilimanjaro is an expensive mountain to climb, but certain questions are worth asking as you ponder the great variety of prices on offer, and what they represent.

Can my outfitter realistically mount a Fair Trade expedition at US$1000/1500 per pack?

Can I take it as a given that because my guide/outfitter assures me that the highest standards are being applied, that they are?

Do I want to contribute to the abuse and exploitation of local people for the sake of saving US$500-US$1000 on a budget climb?

Should I adopt an ‘out of sight out of mind attitude’ as I bed down in my down-sleeping bag knowing that my porters have been equipped with a plastic bin-liner and a blanket?

The answers to all of the above are, or at least should be no!

An inescapable fact of East Africa is that it is one of the most corrupt regions in the world, and in a business as potentially lucrative as tourism, with the degree of competition that exists, corruption on the ground is guaranteed. Human exploitation is also widespread throughout Africa, be it in the recruitment of child soldiers, or the demands for sexual or economic favors from local UNHCR staff in exchange for the registration of women and girls as refugees, or the simple extortion of would be migrants for perilous boat journeys across the Mediterranean to Europe. It should not then come as a great surprise that with the sheer numbers of people employed in the Kilimanjaro porter industry that many will fall victim to similar exploitation.

What can I do?

The main culprits in this are the local Tanzanian climb outfitters. There are certain Tanzanian outfitters with a well documented reputation for this sort of behavior, and although it is not the business of this site to point the finger and name names, there are a few things that you can do to limit the practice.

If you want western standards to be applied then work through a western outfitter. The money you pay still filters down to the same people on the ground, but western outfitters ensure their reputations by holding their local suppliers to acceptable standards. If it costs a few hundred dollars more, then at least you will not be confronted by a freezing porter at 15000ft dying of hypothermia.

Remember that if you pay peanuts, you will get monkeys. The less you pay the less your mountain support crew will likely get. The outfitter will be paid, and TANAPA will be paid, and it is likely to be your guides, assistant guides and porters who will be sold short.

The Good News

TANAPA has been stung in recent years by revelations of corrupt gate officials and very lax standards. These days the agency is placing a lot more emphasis on monitoring local operators and issuing licenses to keep the most blatant bottom feeders off the mountain.

There also now exists after some 20 years of high volume tourism a pool of guides that have worked their way up through the ranks and have emerged with authentic credentials and solid expertise. These men are in high demand and are relatively well paid, and have quite rightly contributed to the heavy rate of price increase over the last decade. TANAPA still accepts very low individual standards as basic, but it can at least be said that the opportunity exists for motivated newcomers to rise through the ranks and aspire to work for and with some of the top providing outfitters in the market.

Perhaps the best news has been the arrival in the region of the International Mountain Connection which, originally conceived as a welfare and support body for Nepalese porters, has opened up in Kilimanjaro offering local porters free survival gear as well as first aid and English lessons.

Apparently a father and daughter team, organized by Mountain Maddness who contracts with a local company (African Environments, I think), climbed the mountain without any problems.

I imagine now that more guiding companies will start climbing the Western Breach again and bring back the most adventurous route on Kilimanjaro. I can’t wait to get up there again.

Read Quality time for father and daughter: At the top of Kilimanjaro.

Recently, however, I have been receiving lots of interest for people climbing Kilimanjaro during the dreaded rainy months of April and May. Typically, I might organize a few groups during these months, but you can pretty much except consistent rain, heavy mud, loads of clouds with limited visibility, but also a mountain pretty much to yourself. If you are looking for this kind of experience, the Marangu route might be the best option during April & May, as you can sleep inside every night on your hike up Kilimanjaro – staying at Mandara Hut, Horombo Huts, Mawenzi Hut and Kibo Huts. You will stay dry, be somewhat warm, and be able to avoid the rain, unlike if you are hiking up the other routes during the first rain.

I would consider arranging your Kilimanjaro tour to descend via the Mweka route, to maybe break up the scenery a bit, and see another side of the mountain as you descend.

Yesterday I received a press release about Bill Barkeley, a guy who suffers from Usher Syndrome, which is taking away his hearing and vision. Bill climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro in order to raise proceeds for his project, Hear the World.

While I know of other blind, deaf people who have climbed Kilimanjaro for similar causes, I was trying to think about what makes this story unique – and I think the real message came out in the interview on ABC news. It’s more a statement about how you “define your own abilities through what do in life.” You can sit around and say you can’t, or you go after those goals and attempt to accomplish them. Watch Bill Barkeley’s interviews on ABC News. This really is the true meaning behind why most people endeavor to climb Africa’s highest moutain. It’s possible, but it’s hard, far away and takes a huge physical commitment.

Now, I bet Bill would even attempt to climb another mountain – Island Peak, Aconcagua? Kilimanjaro is the starting point – the dream accomplishment – but most people come home thinking, “What’s next?”

Crater Camp is, however, much more expensive than a typical climb. It’s high on the mountain, more gear is required, and the entire team – including the porters – go up to the camp.

If you want great adventure, it’s definitely the place to visit – but is not for these two young guys who finally told me “they were on a budget.”